Abstract

A survey of historical and contemporary intersections of global and local forces brings into sharp relief critical questions of subordination and transformation with which all social and political formations struggling for global justice must contend. Most, if not all, these questions issue from the genesis and subsequent instantiations of the modern global. The modern global was triggered by the “discovery” of the “New World,” and was first forged into an enduring cast on the anvil of colonization of the Americas. Recognizing the Latin roots of the modern global underscores the foundational braiding of colonialism with discursive and material structures of power and subordination spawned over the last 500 years. An urgent challenge for outsider jurisprudence is to bring into sharp relief how this foundation continues to animate the law both in its local and global iterations. Training on Latin roots of the global modern and centrality of the colonial question also helps explore histories and futures of resistance and transformation — the possibilities of global justice. It underscores the historical task of moving beyond the colonial and post-colonial and to conceptualize and actualize the un-colonial. The challenge for outsider jurisprudence is to remain cognizant of this canvas of the global and this historical task as it charts points and modes of emancipatory interventions.

Mahmud, Tayyab, Looking Back, Moving Forward: Latin Roots of the Modern Global and Global Orientation of LatCrit (January 4, 2016). Seattle Journal of Social Justice, Vol. 11, Issue 3 (2014); Seattle University School of Law Research Paper No. 16-03. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2710910